In recent weeks, the pound-for-pound discussion that has crystallized around Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue as the sports overall standard bearers has been followed almost universally by a third notable name.
It’s been five years since a breakthrough campaign that elevated him to no less than number two all-time behind Evander Holyfield at cruiserweight. Posting a 3-0 run in 2018, Oleksandr Usyk handed Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev their first professional defeats, winning the World Boxing Super Series and unifying all four major titles in the division. The nightcap for the campaign was a victory over Tony Bellew, a former WBC titlist who lost his title out of the ring while ending the career of David Haye in a pair of heavyweight bouts.
The way Usyk’s 2018 campaign unfolded gave him a chance to display the full scope of his talents. The win over Briedis was a contest of two-way skill that forced the best out of both men, producing one of the best fights in division history and forcing Usyk to solve a difficult riddle right through to the end. Gassiev was a dangerous foe ready to launch bombs, carefully defused to the tune of a near shutout. Bellew boxed well early but was carefully broken down and stopped for only the second time in his career.
They were three excellent wins accomplished three distinct ways, all of them coming on the road in the opponent’s home country.
Usyk has continued to play the road warrior in the years since but with much less frequency. When Usyk (20-0, 13 KO) defends his three (IBF/WBA/WBO) heavyweight belts against 25-year old Daniel Dubois (19-1, 18 KO) on August 26, streaming on ESPN+, it will be his fifth consecutive annual appearance. Usyk’s hardcore fan credentials have seemingly spared him the sort of ridicule a Gary Russell often received as featherweight, but Usyk’s schedule since the WBSS has been of its kind.
Some of that may be because of broader intention. Usyk had position after cleaning out cruiserweight to be a mandatory challenger for Anthony Joshua and he didn’t do anything to jeopardize that. It’s amounted to a lot of lost time for the now 36-year old southpaw.
A heavyweight debut against Chazz Witherspoon was little more than rust busting, a meaningless fight against a foe nearly a decade past a brush with relevance. Dereck Chisora is a common foe for much of the division and Usyk took his turn. The payoff was worth it. Usyk got his showdown with Joshua and went into the UK to win big. He reminded the world how good he was and furthered his standing. One year later, another win over Joshua cemented him as no less than the second-best heavyweight in the world after Tyson Fury.
The fight that mattered at heavyweight didn’t come together.
Here we are another year later and Fury is goofing around with an MMA guy while Usyk is stuck with a mandatory it’s hard to get excited for. Since being knocked out by Joe Joyce, Dubois has played the sanctioning body game well, winning a WBA sub-title against Trevor Bryan and escaping a near disaster in his last fight against Kevin Lerena. Dubois came off the floor three times in the first round to score the stoppage but the question marks were louder than the answers.
Dubois should be and is a prohibitive underdog.
Because he was chasing (and ultimately catching) Joshua, and then Fury, Usyk’s lack of fights has been widely excused but there’s no getting around that of the major names in the class (himself, Fury, Joshua, and Deontay Wilder), Usyk has been the least active and received the least heat of the four. Usyk will be 37 in January and while heavyweights might age later than others, 37 is still old in any sport.
His window to cap his career is closing.
Usyk might never beat Fury but he needs to find out if he can sooner than later. The things he does best in the ring, especially battling larger men, rely on speed, reflexes, and timing. These are all things that erode with age. If the Fury fight never comes together, Usyk will likely spend the early part of next year watching Joshua face Wilder while the band marches forward without him.
Usyk had a window after the WBSS to see if he could join Holyfield as undisputed heavyweight champion, a two-division accomplishment with one man in the club. That window hasn’t closed but one hopes Usyk isn’t here again next summer getting ready for another annual appearance.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com